Potato I have

Another welcome reminder that words are our friends, this time applied to the dogged, never as simple as it ought to be widgetification of stuff. Eighteen months into GTD, and still so much room for improvement. This simple verb chart is now at the top of my actions file, and on a post-it on the wall. By itself it looks useful; as I add my own language it will only get better. Déclic.

All these years of badgering developers to use the right words in their code, and I forget to apply it in my own pursuits.

Note that this is from some nearly lost GTD materials that look to be worth the search.

If you’re into GTD and you somehow haven’t come across 43folders, check it out now. Merlin gives geek cred to something I probably would have otherwise dismissed, and that would have been more than unfortunate. Getting this from a geek who is living and breathing the stuff makes a huge difference.

In a comment on another post, Barry points me to TiddlyWiki. This is an interesting implementation: it’s very ajaxy and opens entries in the current page, in the context of the other entries you’ve already opened. Furthermore, all the data and code lives in a single html file that you access directly with your browser: there is no server or other software, so this is a very convenient PersonalWiki approach. Put it on a key for mobility. And here’s a clever feature: edit functionality is present when browsing via file:// but degrades to view-only with http://.

Barry also points out GTD TiddlyWiki, which is an excellent illustration of wiki-as-framework. This can serve as an easy entry into GTD, as it is a basic, illustrating implementation that can then be further modified to suit. It’s open source, and clear text on disk using basic, standard web technologies; very geek-friendly. It’s very light entry — if you’re at all interested, I encourage you to save either wiki file and start playing with it. Or save both, and look how the one was used to make the other — whether or not you call this 2.0 mashup, it’s a compelling approach to making apps.

Finally, Barry has documented something he calls PocketGTD, which gives PocketMod-like printouts of GTD TiddlyWiki. I haven’t tried it, but having GTD actions printed out in a nice, fold-up pocket booklet sounds really excellent, covering a real-world gap for those of us with nearly entirely digital GTD implementations. At first glance these things don’t fit well with my current GTD, PersonalWiki and MultipleDesktop implementations, but some of these features are compelling enough that I’m looking for how to integrate them.